Jazz fiddler Doug Cameron has a bunch of tools in his kit from Celtic to country along with a bit of classical. Plus he composes some of his material and arranges all of it. The result was an enjoyable, if sometimes imperfect, concert when he and his trio joined the West Virginia Symphony for a pops concert Friday night at the Maier Hall in the Clay Center.

The imperfect part had to do with the amplification of Cameron's electric violin in relation to the orchestra. In his first two numbers, "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Riverdance," balances between him and the orchestra were off. In "Fiddler," when the orchestrations thinned out, he came through clear and true and the ethereal bits of "Riverdance" were pretty. But I could only get a vague hint of what he was playing in the louder passages, especially in the lavishly scored "Riverdance."

Things improved in Cameron's own composition, "Passion Suite." Lightly scored, the piece opened with a solo by the pianist Alan Steinberger and a pretty passage for strings. In Cameron's hands, the tune morphed into a lilting waltz.

In "Over the Rainbow" his improvisations were never fussy and his band and the orchestra flowed easily between ballad and swing styles.

Cameron's "Magia Espanola" had an easy-on-the-ears melody that turned into charging jazz. David Porter, the principal trumpet, had a wild solo and Cameron made his way into the audience to play a jocular cadenza while talking and teasing with some folks.

Classical music puns warmed "Orange Blossom Special" - bits of Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini and Tchaikovsky.

Cameron asked the audience if it thought anyone would mind if he jazzed up Paganini's famous 24th Caprice for solo violin. If you know of the dozen or so composers that have borrowed the tune - Brahms to Rachmaninoff to Lutoslawski - you could only think, "Why not? Everyone else has." Cameron made it swing fast with a great riff in the orchestra while he found some interesting spaces to improvise on the melody.

"Caravan" had some tight swing from his band.

His "Old San Juan" had a solid tune in a great arrangement with a solo by his bassist, Ken Wild, and Pat Goff, an orchestra saxophonist.

Cameron sang and fiddled in the rousing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and had the audience singing along in his gospel-tinged "America the Beautiful."

His "Cuban Spice" set up a duel between him and drummer Mitch Perrins before Steinberger fired up a brisk samba. I was rushing out to meet deadline when he was starting a fast "Sweet Georgia Brown" as an encore.

Guest conductor Ron Spigelman had the orchestra right on the spot with Cameron throughout and led a fine performance of the chestnut "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" to open the show.

The crowd was a bit small, but appreciative. The show repeats at 8 p.m. today at the Clay Center. It is well worth hearing.

Jazz fiddler Doug Cameron has a bunch of tools in his kit from Celtic to country along with a bit of classical. Plus he composes some of his material and arranges all of it. The result was an enjoyable, if sometimes imperfect, concert when he and his trio joined the West Virginia Symphony for a pops concert Friday night at the Maier Hall in the Clay Center.

The imperfect part had to do with the amplification of Cameron's electric violin in relation to the orchestra. In his first two numbers, "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Riverdance," balances between him and the orchestra were off. In "Fiddler," when the orchestrations thinned out, he came through clear and true and the ethereal bits of "Riverdance" were pretty. But I could only get a vague hint of what he was playing in the louder passages, especially in the lavishly scored "Riverdance."

Things improved in Cameron's own composition, "Passion Suite." Lightly scored, the piece opened with a solo by the pianist Alan Steinberger and a pretty passage for strings. In Cameron's hands, the tune morphed into a lilting waltz.

In "Over the Rainbow" his improvisations were never fussy and his band and the orchestra flowed easily between ballad and swing styles.

Cameron's "Magia Espanola" had an easy-on-the-ears melody that turned into charging jazz. David Porter, the principal trumpet, had a wild solo and Cameron made his way into the audience to play a jocular cadenza while talking and teasing with some folks.

Classical music puns warmed "Orange Blossom Special" - bits of Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini and Tchaikovsky.

Cameron asked the audience if it thought anyone would mind if he jazzed up Paganini's famous 24th Caprice for solo violin. If you know of the dozen or so composers that have borrowed the tune - Brahms to Rachmaninoff to Lutoslawski - you could only think, "Why not? Everyone else has." Cameron made it swing fast with a great riff in the orchestra while he found some interesting spaces to improvise on the melody.

"Caravan" had some tight swing from his band.

His "Old San Juan" had a solid tune in a great arrangement with a solo by his bassist, Ken Wild, and Pat Goff, an orchestra saxophonist.

Cameron sang and fiddled in the rousing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and had the audience singing along in his gospel-tinged "America the Beautiful."

His "Cuban Spice" set up a duel between him and drummer Mitch Perrins before Steinberger fired up a brisk samba. I was rushing out to meet deadline when he was starting a fast "Sweet Georgia Brown" as an encore.

Guest conductor Ron Spigelman had the orchestra right on the spot with Cameron throughout and led a fine performance of the chestnut "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" to open the show.

The crowd was a bit small, but appreciative. The show repeats at 8 p.m. today at the Clay Center. It is well worth hearing.